I caught a few minutes of Morning Edition with Bob Edwards on the way to work today, and it never disappoints. Before I deal with their astounding puff piece on MoveOn.org, I want to note that it was preceeded by a piece on the Democratic contenders and how they are much more vicious towards each other in their e-mail and direct mail campaigns than they would ever be live with each other, in a debate for instance. To me, such behavior would seem to be just a variant of the "some people say" syndrome popular in Big Media these days, where the vilest unsupported accusations can be made against someone by "some people" without anyone having to step forward and take responsibility for putting the filth in the streets.
This point was made again big time this morning as NPR discussed the MoveOn.org contest that we've all read about lately. Morning Edition with Bob Edwards treated MoveOn.org almost as an independent middle-of-the-road, free-thinking institution, which was surprised that when they asked for entries for a campaign commercial to tell the truth about Bush, that every entry submitted was hostile to him. Imagine that! Morning Edition with Bob Edwards then proceeded to play snippets of three or four of the entries. While they all stopped a little short of Bush=Hitler, there was plenty of Bush the liar, Bush the despoiler of the environment, Bush the election thief, Bush the unilateral squanderer of internatioanl goodwill, et cetera ad nauseum. Now, of course, NPR would never actually say any of these things themselves about President Bush, but, well, you know, some people say...
Eventually, Morning Edition with Bob Edwards did get to the controversy over the Bush=Hitler ads, but amazingly enough, ... wait for it ..., MoveOn.org was the victim! No, really! The Bush=Hitler ads were submitted by people that MoveOn.org wasn't responsible for, and according to NPR and the MoveOn.org spokesman, the ads were removed as soon as they were noticed, but then the GOP and that nasty Drudge fellow somehow got them and exploited the ads to make MoveOn.org look really bad. Well, at least that's what some people say...
The attempts to mainline the fringe are in full tilt bozo operation over at NPR. Oh yeah, I don't recall any mention in their report of George Soros funding MoveOn.org to defeat President Bush either. Maybe it was there and I missed it since I was driving, but I think I would have noticed. Not that it mattered, since Diane Rehm had Mr. Soros on as her guest today. I don't know what others see or hear in Diane Rehm, but to me she's like a crazy aunt who lives in a cocooned little illiberal fantasy world, further publicizing what "some people say," surrounding herself with people whose views she finds comfortable, and pooh-poohing everyone who thinks differently than she. And if there was ever anyone who does not have a voice for radio, well, my goodness. She's got every right to have whomever she wants on as guests, to say whatever she wants, and to sound bad saying it, but please spare me the pretext that NPR and all their affiliates are anything but an extension of the the DNC and the Left, and increasingly the Angry Left which is chock full of people who will say just about anything.
I'm beginning to find this all to depressing to follow much longer.